The Unknown Rider
by heartofstone
Summary: A new semester brings a new arrival


The Unknown Rider  
  
With all schools, a new semester brings fresh blood (excuse the pun), Sunny Dale is no different. It's not like this place has its fair share of the weird and wonderful, but every fall it's out with the old and in with the new.  
As per usual Buffy and the gang were getting in some pre class relaxation. Slightly bemused Xander broke the silence, "You know I don't get it. How can it be in a town full of daemons, vampires and not forgetting the happy, fluffy hell mouth; that every summer there are more and more kids? I mean look at them, all fresh and bubbly," A small group of impressionable girls walked passed them, "And, forget I said anything. Hello ladies, or not; catch you later!" a little down trodden, but none the worse for wear, Xander resumed his spot among the scoobies. With a grin Willow turned to him, "Aww poor little guy, not even 2 hours into the school day and giving up already? That's not the Xander we know!" The calm was soon broken by an almighty roar.  
Everybody saw it; everybody stared in awe, a black motorbike pulled up in the parking lot. The rider stepped down, clad in black leather from shoulder to boot, without removing their helmet or uttering a single word the unknown rider walked into Sunny Dale High. "Let me be the first to say, ooh! Shiny!" Buffy bounced up and down with a huge smile "Well I'm not getting in that guys way!" From an already panicked Xander. "Who said it had to be a guy? I mean loads of girls ride motorcycles, and loads wear black leather, all the time; so, so there," Willow couldn't hide her vague interest in this new arrival. The bell rang for class, with a few reluctant grunts, the gang headed into the first day of the semester. "Sure Will, can we just get to class, I'm beginning to get distracted," with a little wave to the gathering girls, Xander followed.  
After a few "You're not here to have fun any more" lectures, the gang are once more sat beneath the trees enjoying the end of summer heat. That was all apart from Willow, who, as usual was running a little late. But Willow was on her way to meet them, until she found a use for her new senior status. Walking down the corridor, there was an unmistakeable gathering; somewhat curious Willow went to take a look. It was only when she heard the familiar taunts of the popular girls, she new that they already had a scapegoat. "All right you guys break it up, hey I said... forget it; this calls for some drastic measures, THE PRINCIPAL'S COMING!!" With that the group dispersed with a speed that not even Buffy's reactions could match. Left in their wake was one of the school's latest victims, slightly covered in dust, the figure was hunched over as far as they could and shaking a little. Willow's small feeling of accomplishment disappeared, speaking softly she tried to help. "Hey, its ok they've gone now. Are you hurt?" The little ball lifted it's head to face her, "Are you sure?" It was like looking at a puppy, Willow's heart melted at the sight of the scared, shaking girl before her.  
After helping her up, and dusting her down, Willow decided to take her to meet the gang, for a little more civil introduction to Sunny Dale High, or at least that's what she told her. "Hey Will, where've you been?" Buffy squinted in the sun, the vague outline of two figures filled her sight, "Who's your friend?" she added. "My name is Heart, ma'am, I'm a freshman here." The figure spoke, her face hidden by her bowed head. "Hey check it out Buff! How many people call you ma'am?!" "Xander it's not funny!" Willow snapped at him, "What were you doing with those people? Surely they can't be your friends?" The dishevelled Heart was silent; wile waiting for her response, Willow noticed something about her. She was wearing leather trousers, with black boots to match. "They like to pick on me. They have since I moved here." Heart was trying to fix her hair, it was cut short, dark, and at present incontrollable. "Why would people wanna pick on you? I can't see anything wrong with you, what about you Will? Xander?" Buffy was also struggling with the feeling that she had seen her before. "I don't know why they don't like me. I haven't done anything to them. But they do make fun of my clothes, and hair. They can't handle a little masculinity in a girl." Heart was still shaking from before, "Here, this may help," Willow took her coat and tried to give it to Heart. "No thank you, Willow? Was it? I like to be able to look after myself. I'm grateful don't get me wrong, but, but, I-I gotta get to class." Heart ran off wiping a tear from her face.  
"Well that put a downer on things huh?" Willow shot an annoyed look at Xander, before trying to catch up with Heart. She could hear Willow trying to get her to stop, but she had already grabbed her jacket and helmet from her locker before she had got to her. Still running Heart headed towards the car park, as Willow stepped out into view, the black bike and its unknown rider had sped off.  
Heart pulled up outside her house. She lived with her father, but he had been away on business a lot lately. He never left her a lot of money; but she did her best to scrape by. She'd told herself that he would be back any day now to sort her out. The truth was, her father hadn't even spent one night in the house. He dropped her off, and left again. Heart was a fighter, she always had been, but being alone meant that she had no one to vent her frustrations to, no one to run to when she was in trouble. And she was. Heart was just about to head off again, when there was a knock at her door. "Willow? How in the hell did you find me?" Heart was gently forced back into the house by the concerned Willow. "Look what do you want, I have to be somewhere." "I'm sure it can wait. I want to help you Heart; you ran off so fast I couldn't...How long have you been riding a motorbike? It's really cool!" Willow's reasons for being there were overlooked again. "I told you I appreciate it but I have to go, so if you don't mind?" "Well, I just thought that maybe you'd like to see a bit more of the town, you said you'd just moved here, and I thought that. You know, if maybe," What was going on? Willow had never before struggled to talk to anyone. Even if she was mildly interested in them; maybe. "Yeah sure, sounds like fun, but I have to go," Without even locking the door Heart jumped on her motorcycle and sped off once more leaving Willow in the dust.  
"I don't know Buffy, what can I do? She doesn't want my help, and she doesn't want to talk about it either. But what's worse is I only just met her, and already I'm worried about her. It's dangerous here," "Ok Will, I get the point there's no need to cover it up with serious talk. If you wanna see her, go find her. You're a witch, use a locator spell or something." Romance wasn't some thing new to Buffy, but she found it extremely hard to counsel her friend when it came to women. "I tried that already, she just ran off again. But I think there is something wrong, I mean I saw her house Buffy, I think she lives alone. But what must she be doing for money? There has to be something I can do." "Look Will, do you like her? I get the impression you do, so go find her, go out or something. You're smart I'm pretty sure you can think of something." "Thanks Buffy, oh I don't know, maybe later. I suppose I could skip my Lit homework." "Ohh you little rebel!! See you at school Will, and get some sleep!"  
Heart was a great rider. She was fast, skilful and with a great talent for anticipating the very near future. These qualities are rare in the world of underground racing, but in Sunny Dale there were an array of opponents, with an even larger assortment of skills. Any advantage no matter how slight was an advantage to Heart. She always felt really bad after every race, but it was money, and right now she needed it. Tonight was big; all the riders of Sunny Dale were there, the vampires, the deamons, none of this was new to Heart she would race them all the same if she needed the prize. Heart always needed the prize. But something was different tonight, the rules were about to change, Heart's whole game was about to change.  
The race was due to begin when Willow arrived at the track. She saw Heart walking her bike to the start line. "Heart!! Hey! What do you think you are doing?!" Willow ran towards Heart, but before she could say anything Heart had stopped her. She stared into the endless black of Heart's visor, "Get out of here Willow, it's not safe." And with that the race began, speeding away Heart took first place around the first bend.  
Two bikes were coming up fast behind the black rider, before she could even see them; one shunted the back of her bike. "What the hells going on?!" Heart quickly regained control of the bike, they were coming up to a tight left bend, Heart was looking to take the inside line. The second biker took his chance, he fell back until his front wheel was level with her back tyre, with a sharp turn on the handles he took out Heart's rear wheel. This time she couldn't remain in control, she fought with the machine to regain her balance to no avail. Willow appeared at the exit to the bend anxiously looking for her; she was soon to find Heart. Within a few seconds of the attack on her tail, Heart was thrown into the barrier of the bend with her bike sliding down the track sparking all the way. "Heart!" Willow ran to try and help her, but not before several riders took the bend. Willow grabbed hold of her hand, and the pair disappeared into the night. Several unidentified characters carried her bike off to the prize stand.  
The pair reappeared outside the hospital, carrying her lifeless body into the building, Willow screamed out for a doctor.  
While standing outside the recovery room, a hand fell on Willow's shoulder. "Hi Will, how is she doing?" Buffy sat down next to Willow. She hadn't moved since she brought her into the emergency room. "The doctors say that there are no broken bones that they can see. But they're not sure if she will be able to ride again soon." Before Buffy could give some words of encouragement, one of the doctors came from Heart's room. "Hi, are you the person who brought her in?" Willow nodded her head. She had been there three hours just watching over her. "She looks ok from what we can see. But you can go in there now if you like." With that the doctor left, "I'll see you at home Will, I'm sure you've got things that need doing." Buffy made a small gesture to the prone Heart, "In the morning?" "Thanks Buffy, I'll see you in the morning." Willow made her way into Heart's room as Buffy walked away. The nurse did one last check of her moniters before leaving the two alone. Heart was barely conscious, but she tried anyway, turning to Willow with a small smile, "Ow," Willow's tired face returned the gesture. "What happened after the crash? How come you're here?" Before she could continue Willow had stopped her. "You're a great rider Heart, but why do you have to race? It's dangerous, you proved that this evening. Sunny Dale isn't like other towns; it's not safe for you to compete with people like them." Willow was beginning to panic again; she couldn't remember what she wanted to say. Looking at Heart took the words right out of her mind. Such a strong person lying there battered before her. She wanted to take her out of all the trouble that she knew Heart was in. She felt like just taking her home and looking after her by herself, even just to get to know her better. "I race Willow because I have to. My parents abandoned me here, so I have to make ends meet. It's the only thing I'm good at. When I ride I come out of myself, no one can touch me. Until tonight, how come you keep finding me when I'm in trouble?" Willow tried not to grin while she held Heart's hand in hers. Heart smiled back before gently closing her eyes.  
Just as she closed her eyes, all of Hearts monitors became erratic, alarms and shouting became an inaudible noise as Willow was ferried out of the room. "What's going on? You said she'd be ok!" A nurse took Willow away from the chaos unfolding in Hearts room.  
Willow had called Buffy and Xander back to the hospital. It took the doctors 4 hours of surgery to stabilise Heart once more. They all stood outside her room as the nurse explained what happened. "When you brought her in the doctors couldn't find a problem, but they missed a minor bleeding internally. The minor bleeding quickly became major, she's very lucky to be alive, but she is still fragile, so only one of you can go in at a time." The nurse gave her excuses and left the trio looking in on the once unknown rider. "Go on Will, who knows if you'll get another chance to say what you've got to say," Xander gave her a little gentle encouragement into the room.  
"Welcome back Heart," Willow resumed her spot beside her; she tried to hide the tears in her eyes. "Hey Willow, don't cry all right, I came back didn't I? I'm not one to break dates." Willow gave a confused look as she wiped her eyes, "What do you mean? What date?" Heart smiled at her through the cuts and stitches. "You wanted to show me Sunny Dale, well this is new to me. How about we have that drink, and get to know each other a little." Willow couldn't help but laugh at Heart's offer. She waved at Buffy and Xander as they left; before talking long into the night with the unknown black biker who stole her heart. 


End file.
